Adam recently told me that my list of product management resources helped him land his first product job. His next question was simply, “any advice for my first week?” So for Adam, and for anyone starting a new product role, here’s your first week:
- set up weekly one-on-one (1:1) meetings with your manager, and
- work with your manager to set goals for 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days.
The 1:1s build your relationship with your manager and make sure you’re aligned on what needs to happen for you to succeed in your new role. You want that person to see the work you do; when you’re working on intangible stuff like software, no one will “see” it until it’s completely built. So, we’re reporting back on the work that’s happening in the meantime. Illustrate the value you bring to the team.
Setting 30, 60, and 90 milestones gives you attainable and concrete “wins” that you can feed back into those 1:1s. Measurable wins are important in your “trial” period (the first 3 months at a job where you’re most likely to be cut loose if it’s not a good match.) Plus they feel great.
First 30 days:
Now, we’re going to talk to people, and figure out the issues that need solving. Spend time every day having “coffee” (over zoom these days) with folks you will be working with. Learn as much as you can about all the company’s business problems.
Dive into customer service tickets. Look for trends and learn as much as you can about the customer problems. Try to make good friends with the customer service team. Request to have the same access they have to review incoming tickets.
Note: If your team is “B2C” (business-to-consumer), your users likely contact you through a customer support team. If your company is “B2B” (business-to-business), your users may contact you through an account management team. Either way, same advice — make friends with whomever is close to the customer. Check in with them regularly about customer needs as those needs change over time.
Dig into the data as well. First, just do a high-level audit — what data do you even have? To what extent can you access and make sense of it? How much confidence do the people who’ve been there for a while seem to have in that data? Why?
Following this plan, a 30-day milestone may look like “set up regular 1:1 meetings with stakeholders from departments x, y, and z. Gap analysis of quantitative data sources. Summarize learnings in writing for the team.”
Day 30–60
So begins your second month. Research as much as you can about the Market. Look at the competitive landscape from a business point of view. Look for places where business needs and customer needs overlap. You’ll usually be able to find a few. Focus on ones that are within your resources and core competencies to act on.
Talk to customers and potential customers. Learn as much as you can about Market opportunities and gaps. Look for patterns in customer service tickets. This may reveal common user problems that you need to better understand. I tell the CS team which topics I am most interested in learning more about. I let them know that I’d love to speak to customers who reach out to us about those issues.
Sometimes customer service will CC me into an email thread. I’ll either email or set up a phone or zoom call with that customer to learn more. I use a tool called Calendly to let anyone relevant easily schedule time on my calendar. Almost everyone willing to take their time to talk to me has something to teach me — I’ve never found it to be a waste of time.
Reaching prospective customers is harder. I’ve used Survey Monkey. I’ve also posted links in relevant subreddits and Facebook groups. I’ve even posted survey links in the comments section of Youtube unboxing and how-to videos for a competitor’s product. I’ve posted in my own personal networks on Linkedin and Facebook and asked peers to connect me to people who are trying to solve for x. Any place where my potential customers and I overlap.
When conducting these user interviews, there are some best practices. I try to keep my own biases and assumptions at bay. I listen more than I speak. If the other person starts talking while I am talking, I go quiet and defer to them. I am there to learn, not to teach, even when the urge to correct a user who “isn’t using our product correctly!”. I always ask permission to record our conversations (and DO ASK FIRST, a lot of states legally require it and it’s just the right thing to do). I use two tools — Temi and Otter.ai — to get voice-to-text translations. A lot of bias is introduced in note-taking; transcripts reduce that bias.
It’s wonderful to be able to give the rest of the team quotes in our customers’ own words. Direct customer quotes can often serve as objective criteria when your team disagrees.
If you’re not sure what to ask customers, have some conversation starters:
- What is your main goal?
- What’s your biggest barrier to accomplishing that goal?
- How do you currently work around that barrier?
- What about this keeps you up at night?
Interviews and surveys are qualitative data, but you may also have identified some quantitative data gaps. Make friends with anyone who can get this data and help you understand it. If the data just isn’t being stored, what’s the quickest way to start storing it, even if it’s not perfect? Can your engineers add a Google Analytics pixel so you can start tracking default events? Can they update a few button links to bit.ly links so that you can approximate conversion data?
Your 60-day goal might look like:
- Conduct 15 customer interviews.
- Summarize findings and key takeaways to share with the team.
- Work with engineering to start collecting data we’ll need to measure success.
- Schedule lunch with Jim in marketing to learn about competitive landscape.”
Day 60–90
Your Q1 on the job. It’s time to start selling your vision of the future. Have many [Covid-Compliant-while-it-lasts] coffee conversations. Talk to people about where you see the company in another quarter, a year, even 5 years. What can feasibly be built to help current customers, attract new customers, and move the business forward? See how they respond. Where do you agree? Do they have a different vision of the future?
In each conversation — with your manager, your peers, and your customers — listen more than you speak. Be open to constructive criticism and new information. Invite others in to be a part of building great new things with you. We are all stronger together, and your vision will be stronger if it’s shared.
Don’t assume anyone else is having these conversations. Connect like-minded peers and see which ideas flourish and gain momentum. Build your own cross-departmental “idea” team. Take the ideas from these conversations and build a roadmap to share with everyone.
Your 90-day goal might look like:
- Work with engineering to understand the level-of-effort to address key use cases.
- Identify MVP experiments and tests to de-risk higher effort items.
- Draft product roadmap for internal review.
Delivering on your 30, 60, 90 day plan
Here is a hypothetical 30, 60, 90 day plan for your first quarter:
30 days
- Set up regular 1:1 meetings with stakeholders from departments x, y, and z.
- Gap analysis of quantitative data sources. Summarize learnings in writing for the team.
60 days
- Conduct 15 customer interviews. Summarize findings and key takeaways to share with the team.
- Work with engineering to start collecting data we’ll need to measure impact.
- Schedule lunch with Jim in marketing to learn about the competitive landscape.
90 days
- Work with engineering to understand the level-of-effort to address key use cases.
- Identify MVP experiments and tests to de-risk higher effort items.
- Draft product roadmap for internal review.
Creating and following a plan like this will set you up for success and ensure you have the knowledge, connections, and buy-in you need to make impactful change at your new job. Good luck!
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